


Skip To The End

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 20 Short Gen Fics [10]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 09:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18443774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Merry Christmas everyone!With the holiday in mind, I’m guessing Pitch would be the biggest grinch ever–I mean its sort of in the job description.So this Christmas, North (plus all guardians or none) decides to show him the true meaning of Christmas.It could be whoville style, Scrooge style, or anything else you could think of! Can include presents or not. And if pitch changes his mind afterwards is up to you!Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Day :)"There are rumors going around that Pitch is going to try to wreck Christmas this year. But, North argues, that’s never, ever happened. So why not skip to the learned-my-lesson-and-singing-in-harmony end? Fairly silly.





	Skip To The End

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/18/2015.

“Don’t you normally handle this kind of thing yourself?” Bunny asks with a yawn. “Even when you’re busy?”  
  
North nods. “But this is different! I have been around the block enough times to know, and that is why I have a plan that needs all of you!” He beams around at the other Guardians, and this late in December, his smile is even more infectious than Jack’s. “Anyway, who ever heard of a party with only two people?” He laughs. “At least, that is not the kind of party I am throwing for Pitch!”  
  
Tooth’s cheerful expression gives way to confusion, while Bunny wakes up enough to look deeply suspicious. Sandy looks to Jack, but mostly (judging by the symbols above his head) to ask about what North meant by a two-person party.  
  
“North, I thought you said you had been hearing rumors that Pitch was planning an attack on Christmas this year,” Tooth says. “So…why are you planning to throw him a party? I thought you wanted us to help fortify the Pole and well…help stop him.”  
  
“Aha! But that is what we will be doing!” North looks extremely pleased and Bunny sighs.  
  
“All right, North, just explain.”  
  
“So! I have dealt with many beings trying to ruin Christmas, like Bunny says. But you know what is common to all of these? They never succeed! Christmas is never ruined, and also…most of the time these beings learn about true meaning of Christmas after their plan does not work! Pitch must know this, too, so he cannot have any real hope of ruining Christmas! Only endpoint is change of heart! So we will skip to the end and the party!”  
  
Sandy nods like this makes perfect sense, while Tooth and Bunny look at each other worriedly.  
  
“Yeah, I love parties,” Jack says, “But don’t Christmas-wreckers have to go through trials and stuff before they realize the error of their ways? I don’t think…”  
  
“It will be fine!” North says with a wave of his hand. “Pitch has gone through many trials in his existence already. And this is Christmas! If  _I_  say things will be fine, they will.”  
  
***  
  
“North!” Pitch shouts, flinging open the main gate of the Pole and entering with a host of nightmares behind him. “Come out, come out, wherever–oh, ah…you’re already here.”  
  
“Merry Christmas!” North spreads his arms wide while Pitch stands stock-still, eyes narrowed and brows drawn in.  
  
In the pause, Jack uses the wind to shut the doors as gently as he can, while Sandy approaches the nightmares with an armful of dreamsand apples. This causes them to all break formation at once, and they end up shoving Pitch forward within arm’s reach of North. Pitch tenses up, and opens his hands to summon his scythe, but before he can do so North presses a mug of mulled wine into his hands.  
  
“What’s going on?” Pitch asks Tooth and Bunny, who wait behind North and seem to be behaving the least strangely.   
  
“A Christmas party,” Bunny says stiffly. “Haven’t you ever seen one before?”  
  
Pitch looks around the entrance hall, and…well, yes, it does look like a Christmas party. It’s been wonderfully decorated in red and gold and white, and arrangements and wreaths of evergreen boughs and holly branches have been put up in as many places as they can. A huge tree, sparkling with lights and ornaments, stands in the center of the room, surrounded by comfortable couches and chairs. Tables laden with delicious-looking food line the edge of the space, including one that appears to hold only a large silver bowl of heated wine. “Not like this,” he says, and North beams. “I mean, not from this perspective!” he tries to clarify, and North beams more. “No! What I really mean is–where are you taking my nightmares?” he shouts to the yetis leading his now unusually docile minions away.  
  
“Just to the stables,” North reassures him, and Pitch, disturbingly enough, finds that he  _is_  reassured. After all, Sandy hadn’t turned any of them into sea creatures right now, and he could have, but…  
  
“So what’s going on other than a Christmas party?” Pitch wants to gesture, but he can’t with a full mug of wine, so he sips from it sullenly. It’s good, and takes away the arctic chill at once. He glares at it. “You do know I came here to wreck Christmas?”  
  
“Ah, Pitch. Pitch, Pitch, Pitch.” North slings an arm around his shoulders and steers him toward the food. “No one has ever managed to wreck Christmas in my entire existence. Did you really think you would be the one?”  
  
“I came close last Easter,” Pitch complains, wiggling away from North.  
  
North waves his statement away. “Close does not count.”  
  
“But I…I  _am_  the boogeyman.” Pitch edges stealthily towards a plate of cookies.  
  
“Which means you have lots of things to worry about, yes?” says North. “I have had to deal with beings whose only purpose ever was to destroy Christmas. So, really,” North continues, handing Pitch one of the cookies he’s been eyeing, “we are skipping to the end where you have learned the error of your ways and everything is fixed.”  
  
Pitch looks around to see Tooth rubbing her temples, Bunny glowering, and Jack and Sandy looking at him hopefully. It’s not the reception he expected at all. “But I haven’t learned anything,” he grumbles. “You can’t just skip to the end like this.”  
  
“That’s what I said,” Jack says cheerfully.  
  
“And you recognizing it is very good sign!” North pats Pitch on the back. “So we do some things out of order. It will be fine. Now! We have already established that you would not win. So, if you lose, you have to go back to your lair, which, if you made a big mess while fighting, will have one hundred percent less Christmas cheer there.”  
  
“How do you know that’s not what I want?” Pitch says. North gestures to Pitch’s empty hands and the powdered sugar on his robe, which Pitch frantically brushes away.  
  
“So you will stay for Christmas party then? It will do you good, I am sure!”  
  
“Well, I suppose it is  _physically_  better than the alternative…” out of the corner of his eye Pitch spots a yeti holding what looks like a very tiny piñata hanging from a pole. Which was strange, because North didn’t do things small–wait, was that a ball of mistletoe? He points over at the yeti with a stern glare. “But don’t push it!”  
  
“Would not dream of it!” North says, laughing and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug of welcome anyway.


End file.
